


Let's Go Upstate

by moonjockey



Series: Burr Worked Next Door [4]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Camping, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2018-06-26
Packaged: 2019-05-28 19:24:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15056069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonjockey/pseuds/moonjockey
Summary: Burr and Hamilton go camping. It goes about as well as you'd expect.





	Let's Go Upstate

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Lin's recent tweets such as [this](https://twitter.com/Lin_Manuel/status/1006604091550830592)

Everything was way too green. 

Burr looked way too fucking cheerful. 

Alex had been in nature for about 2 seconds and he could feel about 25 different places that were already itching.

_It will be good to get away from the city_ , he had said. _Fresh air will be good for you,_ he had said. 

“Hamilton, get over here and help me with this tent,” Burr said now. 

Alex complied but not without complaint. “You said you didn’t want me to be working, but here we are on a supposed vacation and I have to work to set up my own accommodations and bed? A flimsy excuse for accommodations, I might add. We’re definitely going to be attacked by something tonight.” 

The outdoor air seemed to be getting to Burr and he just laughed-- _laughed at him._

“I worry you’re not taking me seriously.” 

“I’m not,” Burr said. “Hand me that pole, the tent is almost done.” 

Alex helped Burr slide the pole through the sleeve. “Okay we should be done now,” Burr referenced the instructions. “Just pull this pole up and it should be-- _shit.”_

“Shit, what? That is not a good sign.” 

“I forgot to put the stakes in the ground…” 

Alex glanced over Burr’s shoulder at the instructions. “Oh my god, it’s like step 2!” 

“It’s not like I’ve ever done this before.” 

“What, read instructions?” That earned him a glare. 

“Stop being an ass and help me with these stakes.” 

Burr’s stakes went right in of course but Alex was having a hard time. They kept hitting rock. “Why is this so difficult??” 

Burr came over and pushed the stake into the ground as if it was nothing. “Showoff.” 

 

Burr really wanted this camping trip to work. He had been so excited when he had seen pictures in whatever magazine--an honest to god print magazine. And Alex was trying not to be a miserable ass, he really was. 

“It recommends that we wear long socks to help protect us from bites and poison ivy. Here, I packed some for you.” 

Burr had the truck of the car popped open and was rummaging through his packed bag. Whatever blog or magazine or pamphlet he had read said not to keep your clothes in the tent. He pulled out the biggest pair of white socks Alex had ever seen. “I seriously have to wear those gross things?” 

Burr had his teacher face on. “If you don’t want to get poison ivy, I read that the trail we’re taking...” 

Alex tuned him out as he went on and on about poison ivy and whatever other plants were gonna probably kill him or whatever. 

Burr turned to him, his hand on his hip. “Fine, don’t listen to me, but when you whine and complain when you get a rash, don’t come crying to me.” 

“But why would we even need to go walking in a place that’s gonna give us a rash?”

Burr didn’t answer right away, just kept packing his bag a little more aggressively. He zipped his bag and fixed Alex with a serious look. “Alexander, come on. Can we just try this please?” 

Oh no, the first name. Alex sighed and leaned against the car. “I’m sorry I’m being a jerk. I’m just not used to this. Nature, outdoors... it’s not really my thing.”

Burr leaned next to him, knocking his shoulder gently. “And it’s not mine either, we’re both city boys. But I really just wanna give this a shot.”

“Okay, so we’re doing this.” 

\----

Aaron could tell that Hamilton was miserable, but everytime he looked over at him was greeted with a forced smile. He was trying at least. 

Even at gunpoint, he would never admit that he was feeling kind of the same way. They had been walking for 2 hours now, mostly uphill, and nothing in the scenery had changed. Trees and more trees. They were supposed to be rewarded with a waterfall soon. 

Hamilton stopped, sat down on a big tree trunk and took a drink from his water bottle. “How much further do we have?” 

Aaron opened up the trail map, though he knew it would be no help. He pretended to reference it. “Seems like it should be coming up pretty soon.” 

Hamilton nodded, wiping the sweat off his face with his long sleeves--okay maybe the long sleeves were a bit much. They wouldn’t get sunburn at least. 

About a half hour later they finally arrived at the waterfall and even Hamilton begrudgingly admitted that it had been worth it. 

“Okay. they don’t have anything like this in the city,” he said as he snapped a selfie of the two of them in front of the waterfall. 

 

They stumbled back to their campsite many hours later. Hamilton’s water had run out not even half way back to their campsite, so consequently both their fuses were very short. 

“Do you want to try and get a fire going?” Aaron asked. For the full camping experience, everything had said, they had to cook their dinner over a fire. 

“Do I look like a boy scout to you?” Hamilton said, filling up his water bottle. “I thought that was something you were going to do.” 

Aaron bit back his retort and stomped over to the wood pile to start getting it set up. They had already been sniping at each other the whole hike back, no need to poke the bear any further. 

Aaron pulled up the instructions he had found for how to build a perfect campfire and set about arranging the wood. He struggled a bit; they kept toppling over as he tried to lean the pieces on each other. Hamilton just sat there in one of their brand new camp chairs, scrolling through his phone. 

Aaron couldn’t be blamed when his annoyance bled through as he asked, “Do you think maybe you could get some tinder for us? Maybe some crumpled up paper from the car?” 

“Fineeee,” Hamilton said, heaving out of the chair with an epic sigh. 

Aaron placed a final piece of wood delicately in the fire pit, moving his hands away slowly. _There, that should do it._

“That’s not going to work,” Hamilton said right over his shoulder. 

Aaron threw a glare back at him. “Well thanks for all your help,” Aaron snapped back pulling the papers out of his hands. 

“You didn’t--” Aaron crumpled up one of the papers, cutting Hamilton off. 

He started placing it in between the wood at the bottom along with some leaves and sticks.

“I brought the paper at least,” Hamilton said. Aaron didn’t even dignify that with a response. 

They both finished placing the remaining papers and Aaron lit one to start the fire. 

And that should have been it. You light the fire, tinder catches fire and gets hot, and then the wood catches fire. 

All that happened was that the paper was lit for a few seconds and then burned out. But Aaron had patience. He kept trying. And at least Hamilton had started helping. 

Around the 6th attempt they ran out of random papers from the car. 

“I don’t think this is going to work,” Hamilton said. “I think maybe some of the pieces of wood are way too big and we don’t have an axe. We should just go somewhere for dinner. You’re getting really stressed, you’re probably starving.” Hamilton started to gently rub Aaron’s suddenly stiff shoulders. 

No, this fire would work, it had to work. It couldn’t possibly be that difficult. 

After the 10th time attempting to start the fire, he didn’t feel that way anymore. 

Hamilton had thrown his hands up at one point and went back to his chair and his phone. It was starting to get dark and all Aaron had managed to do was get really good at burning paper and leaves. Aaron kicked the wood over and threw himself in the chair next to Hamilton. 

“Well I think we may be too far away to go anywhere for dinner now. I was trying to look up places with the small amount of signal we have here.” 

Aaron only grunted as he stared into the smoldering remains of his paper fire. 

“Seriously, we’re gonna have to eat something,” Hamilton said. “We’re both gonna get even more crabby.” 

Aaron took a deep breath, Hamilton was right. They could still salvage what remained of the evening. He needed to get ahold of his attitude, it was a vacation after all. 

“You’re right.” 

“Here, let me get it.” Hamilton squeezed his shoulder as he went to the car. Aaron could hear him opening up the cooler. 

“It looks like it’s gonna be cold hot dogs and marshmallows.You sure know how to treat a guy right, Burr.” 

\----

Burr thought he was so guarded and hard to read, but they had been together for a while. Looking at his blank face now, Alex knew Burr was absolutely hating this. 

Alex watched in mild amusement as Burr choked down a cold, wet, slimy, uncooked hot dog. 

“Mmm tastes like college right?” Alex said. He smacked his arm as yet another mosquito came searching for blood. They were swarming around the lantern they had set on the picnic table. 

“Maybe your college experience,” Burr said, grimacing as he swallowed the last bite. 

“There’s more where that came from.” Alex brandished the half-empty package towards Burr. 

Burr just shook his head. 

Alex’s first instinct was to pressure Burr into admitting this trip was his nightmare and driving them the hell out of here. As fun as that would be; he knew he couldn’t do that to him. _“See, I can be mature,”_ he told the imaginary Burr in his head. He would probably tell him for real once Burr came to his senses, on his own time. 

Okay—he admitted as he gazed up—it was nice to see the actual night sky bright with stars. “Hey, look up,” Alex said. 

Alex watched, the stars mirrored in Burr’s eyes, as the blank mask fell away. “See, this is why we came,” Burr said after a few silent moments. “Wow, I haven’t seen the stars like this since I was a kid.” 

“Yeah, me neither.” 

 

It must have been the stars--that usually dark sky lighting up with millions of bright lights. Did he finally find the thing that he liked about the outdoors? Maybe he just liked watching Burr look at the stars with childish wonder. They had stared up for a long time, before their necks cramped up and they could no longer manage the mosquitos threatening to eat them alive.

But it was the only explanation for Alex’s impulsive behavior. He must have been dazed, for here he was attempting to have sex in the middle of a _FOREST._

They had finally dragged their tired itchy gross bodies into their tiny ass cramped tent, and yet--Alex found himself pinning Burr down onto their air mattress.

“Hamilton--” 

Alex cut him off with a kiss. “You were saying?” Burr said nothing. Threading his hand in Alex’s hair, he pulled him down for another rougher kiss. 

Alex never could keep silent. Always had to say what was on his mind, no matter the circumstances.

Alex had just ripped Burr’s shirt off. He moaned as Burr kissed his neck, biting his earlobe, left bruising kisses across his body. Burr was coming up to kiss him on the lips once more--but Oh god Alex got a whiff of Burr’s breath and got distracted-- “Oh my god, your breath smells like hot dogs.” 

The mood was broken before it could even properly begin.

Burr rolled his eyes, pulled himself off Alex, landing next to him. 

“I’m sorry. Your breath is just usually so fresh and I got distracted….” 

“You’re the one who didn’t even want to go and wash up!” 

“I didn’t want to go out towards the bathrooms again..who knows what kind of weird creatures are out there!” 

“Whatever. Well _that’s_ definitely not happening now.” Burr quickly put his shirt back on and picked up his sleeping bag from the edge of the tent. He laid it over the mattress. 

“Okay, fine. That’s fair, it was gonna be a little tricky anyways,” Alex said. He flicked off the lantern and crawled up on the air mattress next to Burr, who had zipped himself into his sleeping bag. 

Alex spooned himself against Burr’s back and threw one blanket over himself. 

“There’s another sleeping bag in here for you,” Burr said. “And you should probably put your shirt back on. I read that--”

“Shh Shh..I’ll be fine. You always are like a second blanket anyways, you run pretty warm.” 

“Suit yourself.” 

 

Alex woke up still flush against Burr, but the blanket had somehow disappeared and he was absolutely freezing. They both had fallen asleep very quickly and it could have been 5 minutes later or 5 hours later with how dark it was outside. 

Alex rummaged around the tent to get the blanket and his shirt. 

He had just settled down next to Burr again, who was still fast asleep, when he heard a sound. 

_SNAP._

He sat up, his heart beating fast. He heard the sound again-- _right outside the tent._

“Burr, oh my god, please get up.” Alex shook his shoulder. “There’s something out there.” 

“Wha--” Burr said sleepily. Alex felt him stiffen under his hand as the noises continued. 

“Ahh, what do you think it is?” Alex asked. He dared not talk above a whisper.

Burr sat up and leaned over towards the lantern. 

“No don’t turn the light on! It’ll see us!” Alex whispered hastily. 

After going back and forth for a few minutes, Burr bravely stepped outside the tent to investigate. 

“I don’t see anything...” Burr said from outside the tent. 

“Are you sure? Look around. It sounded huge!” Alex managed to peek briefly out the window and could see Burr shining the lantern all around the campsite. “It was probably just a squirrel or something.” 

Alex thought he would possibly never go to sleep again, with _nature and animals_ all around him, but surprisingly did--probably the lack of city sounds, actual darkness.

But his sleep was interrupted again, this time by drops hitting the roof of the tent. 

He snuggled closer to Burr, who groaned. “Is it raining? I didn’t think it was supposed to rain and we had such a clear night..” 

Alex slept through the rest of the night and woke to the sun shining brightly in their tent. It must have been only a small storm. But because of that, he could feel his sinuses pounding; his allergies always bothered him after it rained. His back was also killing him; the air mattress had severely deflated over the night and he could feel a rock poking through. And everything in the tent had a vaguely damp feeling to it. Did water get in their tent? 

Not to mention...everything itched-- _EVERYTHING._ He was trying not to itch the bug bites. But it was hard to stop. 

With how bright the sun was, he couldn’t believe he had slept so late..and Burr was still sleeping, snoring softly next to him. Alex peeled his aching body off the air mattress and found his phone--oh it was only 6. 

He was trying to leave the tent quietly and go to the bathroom. Burr wasn’t much of a morning person. But he felt his nose start to itch, the pressure in his sinuses building up. _Oh No._

_"Hahh...hahhh…_ ” Alex managed to stifle the sneeze quietly without waking up Burr. 

He was unzipping the flap of the tent when it happened again--this time it came on so suddenly he couldn’t stop it. _"Ahhkshoo!_ ” Alex sneezed loudly into his hands. He groaned. He needed to get his allergy medicine and probably some Advil. 

Alex was wiping his nose on his shirt when he heard Burr stirring. “You okay?” 

Alex sniffed. “Yeah. Sorry. My allergies are acting up. I need to--to--” He sneezed again. “Ugh. I was trying to let you sleep. I’m gonna go and get my medicine.” He itched his leg. “And some hydrocortisone.” 

\----

Aaron was startled awake by a loud sneeze. His eyes popped open. 

Hamilton was standing, well almost crouching, near the entrance, his head just barely clearing the ceiling--it was quite a small tent--his eyes watering. He was alternating between wiping his nose and itching his arm. Aaron did tell him to put on bug spray last night…

Aaron wasn’t feeling too great himself. His back was sore--the air mattress basically non functional at this point, as he was almost on the ground and there was some rock _right_ under him. He hadn’t had the best night of sleep either, he kept waking up to little sounds, Hamilton’s whining, the rain, and the sunlight streaming in before 6. And why did everything feel so damp? 

Maybe once they got up and moving and washed up, they would feel better. 

Hamilton cleary wasn’t feeling too miserable to throw in _“Gotta get rid of that hot dog breath!”_

It helped him feel more functional, but his back still felt tight and sore. 

After his usual morning run-- very different scenery than what he was used to, but he was too focused on his back to appreciate it--he drove Hamilton, eyes watering, constantly scratching and sneezing, into town to get breakfast and coffee.

“Thank GOD they have Wi-fi,” Hamilton said as soon as they walked in the door to the tiny cafe. He didn’t say much after that, glued to his phone, he only managed to pathetically sneeze a few more times; it seemed his allergy medicine was kicking in. 

Aaron planned out the rest of their day. There was another small storm coming later, but Aaron figured they had time for another hike before that came. 

Two crises later--they went to replace the ice only to find the cooler had leaked all over the trunk, they got slightly lost with limited signal-- they arrived at the trailhead. And found many signs plastered next to the map warning of bear activity. 

In his research for the trip, he had seen some bear warnings, but sightings were very rare. He hadn’t exactly mentioned it to Hamilton. Even with their sort of awful morning, Hamilton had barely complained, Aaron should have realized it was only a matter of time before--

“Bears? What the fuck?” He was _thrilled_ , of course. 

Aaron wasn’t too thrilled either. But everything had said that this was the best trail in the area, and he didn’t want to miss it. 

“Come on, Burr. Let’s not keep up this charade any longer. You’re miserable, I’m miserable. You were forced to eat a RAW HOT DOG.You haven’t mentioned it lately, but I can tell your back is still bothering you. I could take a bath in hydrocortisone and it wouldn’t help how itchy I still am.” 

“It’s only for 2 more nights..we haven’t even gotten to have a fire yet,” Burr replied. “And bear activity in this park is very rare. This is a popular trail. Look at all the cars parked here. Everything I read said we’ll be fine.” 

“Don’t use the teacher voice with me. Maybe I should just stay in the car.” 

“It’s because I’m apparently dealing with a child. And just like I would tell the children...you’ll be fine.” 

And that was almost true. They had made it all the way to the lake vista overlook, and were on their way back when they saw a few people stopped and pointing towards something in the trees. 

Hamilton and Aaron stopped to see what they were looking at. They could see just off the path --but definitely not far enough away-- something small and brown. 

_It was a bear._

_And it was coming towards them._

Hamilton saw it first. “Oh my god. You said there would be no bears! But what is _that--_ ”Everyone standing around shushed him. “How are you just all standing around!”

Aaron was immediately seized with terror. It wasn’t just a bear. It was a baby bear. And that meant momma was nearby. He had done some bear research, and didn’t want to be anywhere close when she came back. 

“Oh look, there’s it’s mom!” Someone in the crowd said, pointing towards the trees. 

_Nope. Nope. NOPE._ These people were idiots! He wasn’t gonna get mauled by an angry momma bear. He grabbed Hamilton’s arm in a tight grip and calmly but briskly made their way down the path. 

“Okay, now might be a time for me to actually run.” Hamilton dislodged himself from Aaron and started to look like he was going to run away. 

It was Aaron’s first instinct as well, but he did remember that you weren’t supposed to run. 

“We can’t! Just walk as calm as you can, and make a lot of noise.” The rest of the walk back passed in a blur. 

It started to drizzle as they got to the car. They sat for a few minutes, the only noise the light rain and the sound of them both breathing heavily. Hamilton even made sure to lock the car, as if that would help. 

They both were kind of shell-shocked, and Aaron felt numb after coming down off the adrenalin kick. 

Aaron sat, puzzling out how he could even manage to redeem himself. He had wanted a trip away from it all, but this...

He nodded to himself as he made a final decision. He put the keys in the ignition. The rain started to pick up, and turned to a heavy downpour as he drove out of the parking lot. Hamilton still hadn’t said a word. He looked fit to burst at any moment. 

Aaron managed to let one hand off the wheel to squeeze Hamilton’s leg. This seemed to jolt him back to life. “Where are you going? You need to take us home.” 

“We can manage one more night, then we’ll head home.” 

Aaron could see Hamilton turning full in his seat to face him. “I’m sorry...but did you forget about the _FUCKING WILD ASS ANIMALS_ that we had to see? Something that could actually kill us. Why would we need to spend one more moment here? I know you’re trying to make this work. It’s not.”

Aaron ignored him, devoting all his energy to focusing on driving. The wipers were now on their highest setting, it was hard to see where they were even going. 

Hamilton stewed in his seat, muttering to himself.

They drove right through the storm, and when they arrived, they saw their campsite. Or what was left of it. They had got the full brunt of it. High winds and all. 

The campsite was slightly flooded, and their tent--oh, their tent.

The rain fly had flown off, and even some of the tent had come slightly off the ground. it looked like they had even left some of the windows open..all their stuff was sure to be wet. 

And he heard the telltale sound of thunder..

Nope. This trip was over. 

“Oh my god,” Aaron said, laughing sort of manically. “This was a disaster. Let’s get the hell out of here.” 

“ _Finally._ Jesus, Burr, you really do have the patience of a saint.” Hamilton laughed as well. “Let’s grab the tent and run.” 

At least they would have a good story to tell.

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently I'm not done with this series and there may be more short fics like this one!


End file.
